The Republican

The Enchanted Harp

By LAURA R. MONTGOMERY

(Copyright.)

Henrietta, looking around the waiting room filled with teachers, experienced an acute fear. When there were such a number of applicants would she be able to get any kind of a position? And, if she did secure one would it be in a town that Dora would like? Dora, her younger sister was not fitted for work, or so she thought, and Dora took avid dislikes to places. Henrietta could have kept on at the Sawyer high school if Dora hadn't insisted upon a change of scene, saying in her gentle, pathetic voice that she hadn't much to amuse her. Her sister seldom had time, herself, to think of amusement because the work of the tiny apartment, plus her teaching took most of her strength.

All year Henrietta sewed and cooked and mended and got temporary positions during the school vacation. She was an expert stenographer and was seldom out of work more than a few days between offices. But, work as she might, the expenses kept her thinking.

Two years before Dora had heard a harpist at a concert and had come home possessed of a consuming desire to learn. The harp cost a thousand dollars which Henrietta paid for in monthly payments. Also she had contracted for a long term of lessons because Dora felt that harp-playing was exactly what she could do. And she was an apt pupil. The lovely long fingers with their delicate pink nails swept the golden strings beautifully, and in an amazingly short time she played simple melodies with both feeling and accuracy. To Henrietta, accustomed to the long hours of teaching, the harp seemed the entrance to a new and glorious world. She would forget her mending and sit entranced while Dora played and sang in her sweet threadlike voice.

It was through the harp music that Henrietta had her first chance at romance. Peter Pringle, in the flat below heard the music. He asked a mutual friend to present him and soon he ran up nearly every night.

Dora had high ideas about marriage and was, as she candidly told her sister, saving herself for the man who could give her wealth. She looked on at the embryo-romance with cool, amused eyes and was most agreeable about playing the songs that Peter loved. So friendship had progressed into courtship under the blue-eyed scrutiny of Dora, and Henrietta knew that she owed an immense debt to the music that had brought Peter to her.

But, although it was Dora's playing that formed a bond, it was also Dora who proved a barrier because the lovely, useless Dora was an expensive luxury and Peter earned only thirty dollars a week. Therefore the hope of marriage must be postponed until Dora, in some miraculous fashion, found the man of wealth who would relieve Henrietta of her load.

The employment placement clerk looked at Henrietta's shiny blue serge, glanced at her papers and then regarded her impersonally. "I'm afraid I can do nothing for you," she said coldly.

The girl went slowly out, almost stumbling against an old college friend who was wearing the very latest French hat and clothes to match.

"Good old Henrietta," she greeted. "I'm mighty glad to see you. Do you know I am going to give up teaching next year?"

"To be married?" demanded Henrietta.

"No. But I've got a chance to travel in a musical quartette playing the banjo. If only I knew the harp I would be in better luck."

Henrietta asked about the work, more to be pleasant than through curiosity, for she was worrying about her own problem.

"It's right here in Chicago. A music shop in a new suburb needs a harpist. Not any wonderful musician, you know, just one who can give a program of popular melodies and sing a bit. By the way, did you ever buy the harp that Dora talked about so much?"

"Oh, yes, and she does well. Why don't you come up tonight and hear her play?"

Her friend arrived bringing a man with her. At the end of the evening Jack Gordon asked Dora if she'd care for the position he had to offer. The salary wasn't very large but it was ample for one person and Dora's cool eyes brightened as she listened.

"Why, playing my harp is my greatest pleasure," she said. "I'll be glad to start in right away."

The manager of the new venture smiled. "We're going to have an evening in the new community house next week. I'd like you to wear something blue. Turquoise, I believe is the shade that will match your eyes. You'll have two numbers and - I hope you'll let me call for you."

Peter was the last to go, and while Dora was dreamily sweeping her beautiful hands across her beloved golden strings he drew Henrietta out into the hall. "That harp seems to be enchanted," he said quaintly, "when I first heard it downstairs I was simply unable to keep away. I managed to get acquainted and now it has" - he checked himself lest he disturb the elder sister who had worked so uncomplainingly for Dora. "Well," he said, "it leaves you free for - me."